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Voices: School bus safety

We asked you whether you think school buses should be fitted with seat belts. Here's what you had to say.

Thu., April 12, 2007

We asked you whether you think school buses should be fitted with seat belts. Here's what you had to say.

A seat belt might very well have saved the life of John Pham if it is fact that his injuries were caused because he was thrown from his seat while seated directly behind the seat in front of him. In an ideal world, with perfectly behaved children riding all buses at all times, seat belts would be perfect. In reality, it is not quite so simple. If seat belts are introduced, there will have to be another adult supervisor on board to ensure that all children have buckled up.
Mary Ann Ruske, Fort Erie

School buses should not be allowed on a 100-km road unless they are equipped with restraint of some kind.
Thorn Curtain, Gatineau

Of course they should be outfitted with seat belts. And what was a school bus, full of children, doing on a major highway?
Kate Julie, Queenston

Having ridden in a school bus during my school years, I cannot even begin to imagine how you can get a bus load of loud boisterous energy-filled youngsters to sit still, let alone use a seatbelt. How do you enforce it?
Yuri Amatnieks, Mississauga

I have been involved with the school transportation industry for several years, and installing seat belts in school buses will do more harm than good. The biggest issue would be enforcement, and school bus drivers already have enough to worry about without adding seat-belt enforcement to their duties.
Nicholas Clements, Toronto

What if this bus had flipped and turned over? You would have children being flown into each other and no padding on seats would protect them from that.
Sue Alchikha, Mississauga

What's next? If they put seat belts on buses, are they going to want airbags too?
Chris Just, Toronto

The government says that seat belts will cause head and stomach injuries. But yet we have to have booster seats for our children in our own vehicles.
Shelley Labelle, Cornwall

As far as I'm concerned this is a ridiculous question. Of course buses should have seat belts. Why is it the law in cars and trucks and not on school buses? And now with this latest accident one more life has been lost and many more lives affected.
Frank Pellegrino, Toronto

This is just beyond belief that there is no law regulating the use of seat belts on the school buses. It’s hard to believe that this kind of vehicle is allowed on the highway considering the average speed of 100 km/hr without seat belts. It’s time to change the law.
Margaret Siwicka, Oakville

As a mother of an 8-year-old boy who takes a bus from school to the daycare daily, yes, I believe there should be seat belts on all buses carrying any passengers, child, adults and seniors. My deepest sympathy to the family and friends of young John.
Patricia Haldane, Oshawa

I have always wondered why there were no seat belts on school buses. After all, the school buses are dealing with children who are playful, hyper, carefree beings and it is up to the adults to take initiative and secure them down with seat belts.
Priya Bansal, Mississauga

How many more? It's an issue that will have to be seriously looked at and addressed by the Ministry. They say, 'Chances of this happening are very slim….' Try telling that to the parents that lost their child.
Bernie Duque, Dundas, Ont.

The seat belts themselves could be used improperly, which could cause choking or strangulation depending on the actions of the children and the supervision (or lack of it) of the adults on the bus. Unless seat belts are introduced with a mechanism to ensure that the bus could not start without each child buckled in properly, there would be more drawbacks from the use of them than benefits.
Jason Bayda, Vaughan

I believe school buses going out of the city, onto highways, should have a responsible adult on board to control children and assist the driver with all emergency situations. Perhaps this wouldn't avoid an accident happening but I am sure it would be a great support for the driver, in an emergency.
Joan Quinn, Wasaga Beach, Ont.

Children seem to fare well on TTC buses and streetcars, but let’s face it: the driver training is of a whole different order than that received by a school bus driver. Just as important, a TTC bus is a far more solid and better handling vehicle than a school bus, which is little more than a cabin dropped onto a truck chassis. Perhaps on the highway, it should be required that children be strapped into seats with belts properly adjusted for each child's specific stature. It would have made a difference in this case.
George Haeh, Toronto

First off, I am deeply sorry for all involved in (Wednesday’s) horrific accident. I am a former school bus driver. I will never agree to seat belts in the 40-foot buses. If there was ever a fire in the engine compartment of the vehicle or at the back of the bus can you imagine the driver and all of the panic stricken passengers trying to undo the seat belts and getting out of the monster safely. Timing is everything in a panic situation.
Judi deLeeuw, Stoney Creek, Ont.

It is too bad someone had to die to give this the attention it deserves.
Dennis Hills, Trenton, Ont.

All school buses should be fitted with seat beats. Cases presented so far against the use of seat belts in the buses are 1) that the buses are well padded enough 2) that lap belts will actually hurt the child. My reaction is that 1), obviously … the padding is not enough and 2) what's to stop the use of shoulder strap belts?
Kyun Lee, Toronto

It is unbelievable. The school buses are not only obsolete but the most dangerous public transportation vehicle with no protective devices and they are "designed" to transport our children. The entire school bus system should be revised. Our children deserve a lot more attention and a lot more care.
Ovidiu Hornar, Thornhill

How can we set an example for our children if on a school bus they do not need to wear seat belts since they are not available? The government needs to send a clear message to the companies that benefit from transporting our children.
George Michel, Richmond Hill

The only question that should be considered is: Will having and using seat belts in buses improve the safety of its passengers? If the answer is yes, then what is there to discuss?
Steven Lee, Markham

The bottom line is that the reason seat belts are not mandatory on school buses is because it would be too expensive to do a radical change for all school buses and transit buses. It is ridiculous that one would argue that if there were a fire, seat belts would cause more harm. The same applies to our personal vehicles but it is still the law to wear seat belts.
May Camilleri, Oakville

Yes, I believe school buses should have seat belts. If it is required in a car why not in a school bus? Especially where children's lives could be in danger.
Maria Santos, Richmond Hill

For years I have wondered why school buses do not have seat belts. Does it always have to take a death to make us wake up? Please consider installation of seat belts in all school-purpose vehicles now.
Leslie Rose, Toronto

Of course. Especially given the fact that parents are themselves liable if any of their charges are not strapped in, it seems like an incredible oversight. And the same applies not just to school buses, but any buses that travel on highways.
Steeve McCauley, Montreal

It is easy to get emotional about a tragic story like this, but in-depth studies have shown that having no seat belts on buses (with exceptions for very small children) is safer than having seat belts.
Peter Young, Toronto

Absolutely. It is hard to believe that the same government that has smokers stay 15 feet from the entrance of a building for the safety of the occupants can send dozens of children, no doubt a distraction to the driver, barreling down a 400 series highway at 90km/hr with no seat belts and then have the audacity to claim that providing seat belts would be more dangerous for the children. What an insult to our intelligence and tragedy for our children that the cost of installing seat belts comes before their lives.
Helen Long, Orillia, Ont.

They've been talking about seat belts for buses since I was a student in the 70's. As far as I'm concerned, seat belts should have been made mandatory for school buses at the same time it was made mandatory for all drivers and passengers to wear seat belts in cars and trucks.
Fiona Hammond-Vincent, Ottawa

Yes there should be shoulder-strap seat belts in use for buses that are on highways travelling at high speeds vs. buses in urban areas only going 50 km/h maximum.
Laurie Carnegie, Milton

There have been many arguments for and against seat belts. As a school bus driver I am against them - the buses are designed to keep kids safe in the event of an accident - provided the kids are sitting properly in their seat. Also, in the event of an accident requiring an evacuation, it is impossible to get up to 72 children out of a seat belt and out of the bus quickly. As well, there is no way, as a driver, to enforce a seat belt rule. We can tell them to put it on, but they may not, they may put it on and then take it off as soon as the bus is in motion.
Susan Valitalo, Pickering

Yes, definitely, positively, yes. School buses should be equipped with seat belts. Seat belts protect people. It's a fact. Why go through more deaths and injuries when they could be prevented? What's the difference between a child travelling on a school bus and one in a car/van/SUV? None.
Nimi Bolla-Davies, Mississauga

Yes. Without a doubt school buses should have seat belts. Seat belts prevent the body from being thrown out of the seat and into the aisles, other seats, windshields, etc. They reduce the probability of injury and death in a car, so why would they be optional in a school bus? In fact, school buses should be equipped with air bags too.
Elle Sharma, Toronto

It's children’s lives we are talking of. I've always been puzzled as to why all cars by law require belts, but not school buses. Children cannot protect themselves.
Shirley Chan, Markham

Yes, school buses should have seat belts. I have been a parent volunteer on many trips and was always shocked when they crammed kids 3 to a seat so that they didn't have pay for an additional bus. Many children had to sit with their legs in the aisles. The reasoning was that if the price increased due the need for additional buses most parents would just not let their children go on the trips because the price would be too high.
Danielle Winters, Mississauga

I think school buses should be fitted with seat belts. The government will not allow your child to ride a bike without proper protection, but they will allow them to be bussed with proper restraints. Doesn't make sense to me. It's just tragic that it has taken the death of a child to make this step a consideration.
Sandra Buttke, Mississauga

Yes I believe seats belts should be in school buses. We cannot drive our cars without them and I think the safety of our children should be taken very seriously.
Suzanne Davidson, Brampton

Yes. I still drive my 7-year-old to school and back. How can the Ontario government go from making child seats in cars mandatory for the under-8 set to allowing no seat belts in a school bus for the same age group? My heartfelt condolences to the family of the 10-year-old boy.
Lisa McBride, Orillia, Ont.

First, school buses don’t have ‘seats’ but they have ‘benches’. Larger school buses have 24 benches and they allow the operators to load 48 big kids or 72 small kids. In short, it allows 2 big kids or 3 small kids per bench. How can we design seat belts for variable occupants? Seat belt idea for the school buses will force the operators to limit the occupants to 2 per bench and that will take away some profit. I am sure the operators will do anything to stop the school bus seat belt idea.
Alagan Elavalagan, Toronto

I think that the school buses should have two shoulder belts for each double seat. Our children should be worth the extra cost of seat belts and I know from experience that even in a minor slow speed bus accident you get thrown around a lot.
Linda Galbraith, Brampton

Yes, they should have seat belts and bus drivers should be better screened. They almost always speed. I've been on school trips where the school bus is traveling faster than the cars on the street. This must stop.
Nadia Simeone, Toronto

I'm actually quite shocked that they don't have seat belts. I thought seat belt enforcement was applicable to all vehicles. It seems ludicrous to me that it hasn't been enforced in this area.
Susan Ross, Toronto

School buses need to be redesigned. Sitting on a school bus is not that different than sitting in the back of a truck. Kids can easily get crushed or thrown off the bus by even a sudden brake. Either redesign the school buses to equip them with seat belts and suit children's capabilities, or do not allow school buses to go on highways (or travel faster than 60 km/h).
Kathy Zhang, Toronto

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